More than 30 SIPTU community sector reps working on Community Employment (CE) schemes across County Galway held an open day last week (Monday 25th June) in St Joseph’s Community Centre, Galway City as a form of positive protest against Government budget cuts to the schemes. There are 1600 CE workers in the county, 23000 in the country. These jobs in essential areas, such as childcare and mental health, could be lost because of policy on CE funding. This would affect the most disadvantaged in communities. Junior Minister for Skills and Training, Ciaran Cannon, was one of the many politicians in attendance who listened to what people had to say.

The aim of the event was to highlight the variety and scope of services that are being put at risk by the cuts that were made in last December’s budget to the training and materials grants available to CE schemes. Another cut that will impact on various schemes ability to deliver crucial services is the 1 year limit for participants. Previously 2-4 years could be allowed in certain circumstances for certain participants.

M.S. Ireland, for example, had trained participants to get physiotherapy assistant FETAC accreditation so that they can make home visits and provide weekly physiotherapy for their clients who would otherwise receive far less frequent physiotherapy from the HSC.

SIMON, COPE and GSPCA were also there and others including the Athenry C.E. Scheme whose work amongst other roles helps maintain local attractions such as Lady's Well, thereby supporting tourism.

Aoife Nic Fhearghusa attended with the Galway Peoples' Resource Centre which provides information, advocacy and training.

Aoife had this to say, "“C.E. is a multifaceted entity that supports the voluntary sector in all its variety to deliver an incredibly broad range of invaluable community services where government service provision is inadequate. When being assessed for budgetary cuts it should be assessed with all these criteria in mind. Hopefully the Minister will now know what CE participants, sponsors and supervisors already know i.e. C.E. is and always has been more than a mere training scheme or work experience opportunity for people previously on the live register. ”

Regarding the cuts to the training allowance for those actually on the CE schemes Aoife continued, ” There used to be a training allowance of €500 per participant per year, this was cut entirely initially, but an allowance of €190 has been re-established.
The training the participant chooses must be FETAC accredited; it proved to be a stumbling block for me and I was unable to use my €500 allowance when I had it. I have a masters degree, diplomas and certificates. I specifically wanted to learn how to use graphics software to enhance the look of the centre's newsletter and website, as well as learning about modifying wordpress websites. I would have used my money to hire one on-one-tuition or attend workshops. This would have been efficient use of my training allowance for me and for my place of work but I was not allowed to do so.
One set of inflexible rules re: use of training allowances to fit all does not work in the C.E. sector because the participants and services they provide are so varied. The allowance is now only a fraction of what it was and the FETAC rule still applies. It's really frustrating when there is actually so much that I still want to learn.”

Concerning the funding crisis and future of the CE schemes, whether any of the "politicians" have anything of note to offer remains to be seen. A “Communities Against Cuts” campaign, involving SIPTU, other trade unions and community groups plan to organise actions at local and national level over the coming months. It needs to pull the entire community sector together to stop these cutbacks.